mr. mark sandy i am not going to characterize his testimony except to say that he is the first witness from the office of management and budget to come forward. we have asked other individuals like the acting director mick mulvaney as well as others around the white house. we have seen issues that are pertinent to this testimony today who have refused to come in. it is with gratitude that we want to thank him for coming in today and providing useful testimony. always, when witnesses come and we learn more and today we learned more because he honored his duty to cooperate in our investigation. >> [indiscernible] mr. sandy's testimony relates that the administration placed on security assistance to ukraine. i will not go into what he testified to. this investigation is most importantly about $391 million in taxpayer money that was leveraged to ask the ukraine's to look into the president's political opponent. this was authorized by congress, signed into law by the president by wheny day that went that money was not given to the ukrainians, the ukrainians were dying. by when [indiscernible] >>

mr. mark sandy i am not going to characterize his testimony except to say that he is the first witness fromhe office of management and budget to come forward. we have asked other individuals like the acting director mick mulvaney as well as others around the whiou

mr. mark sandy. that of course is one the offices that mulvaney runs along with being acting chief of staff. he said he had never before seen an official do that. and he raised questions about whether that violated the control act of of 1974. >> you know the sad thing is this is supposed to be delivered. wh why wasn't it delivered? i think rank and file officials are wondering what is the hold up? this is not a normal process. er it wasn't delivered and apparently for domestic political reasons. the president wanted some leverage over ukraine to get dirt on joe biden. >> that point is an important one. because part of the argument to justify the hold is that'ser the natural part opolicy, which isn't persuasive at all. it was signed into law by the president. dotting the i's, crossing the t's and cutting the check. >> that's why mulvaney to get back the original question. because he is the act omb director. and this is the kujal. the leverage trump had to extract what he wanted from the president off

mr. mark sandy, who gave a deposition on saturday. it's the first time someone from omb has testified.that of course is one of the offices that mulvaney runs along with being the acting chief of staff. sandy testified that he had never in his career seen a senior omb official assume control of a portfolio in such a fashion. that's referring to his boss, michael duffy. he raised questions to the general counsel about whether it violated the act of 1974. there are questions for the omb staff. >> the sad thing is this is not supposed to be a politicized process. congress approved this aid. it was supposed to be delivered. why wasn't it delivered? so i think omb officials, rank and file career officials, are wondering what is the holdup here? this is not a normal process. this should have been delivered, it wasn't. and apparently it wasn't for domestic political reasons. the president wanted some leverage over ukraine to get some dirt on joe biden. you know, that doesn't sit well with some people. >> that point is an important one because part of the argument to justify the hold as a kind

mr. trump and the ukrainian president had the conversation that spawned the complaint. mark sandy in the office of management and budget, his transcript was just released. he told his boss withholding aid might violate the law. according to the testimony two people left their jobs at the budget office, partly because of the ukraine mess. >>> there's one big difference this time. president trump and his lawyers have been cordially invited to attend. president trump took the stage for a homecoming rally last night in his newly declared home state of florida and he railed against the impeachment investigation with a familiar vulgar refrain. >> they're pushing that impeachment witch hunt, and a lot of bad things are happening to them because you see what's happening in the polls? everybody said that's really bullshit. >> actually that comment is b.s. i'm not going to say it on the family program here. a new poll shows 50% of the country supports impeachment and removing the president from office. mr. trump also claims he really would like his top officials to testify in the impeachmen

released depositions from interviews with et official mark sandy a state department official philip reeker andei said testimony bolsters the case against mr we will return to impeachment right chatter -- right after the news summary. in iraq, more violence tod. three bombings across baghdad killed at least five people, and wounded more than a dozen. there was no immediate claim of responsibility meanwhile, clashes with security forces have left three more irmonstrators dead. smoke filled the across parts of southern iraq as protesters burned tires and occupied roads. israel says two rockets were fired from the gaza strip and it retaliated with airstrikes against hamas sites. tensions were high in the west bank.th severasand palestinians staged a day of rage against the new u.s. stance on israeli setrlements. the ump administration annoced last week it no longer considers the settlements illegal, reversing 40 years of u.s. policy., in bethlehemotesters threw rocks at israeli soldiers,ho fired back with tear gas. leaders condemned washington. >> this decision makes the american administration narticipants with israel in violating internlaw.

mr. rudy giuliani on ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the united states. >>> meanwhile, freezing security aid for ukraine during closed-door testimony, omb director mark sandyxplained to impeachment investigators earlier this month that he received an email from the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney's office july 12th directing a hold on aid. on july 26th, sandy testified that the omb office, the white house budget office did not know why the money was being withheld. sandy then raised legal concerns that the unexplained hold could violate appropriations laws and explained that to his higher up who was michael duffy. duffy who is a political appointee took the lead on pointing funds on aid. mark sandy testified it was not until around september 9th, and it's days before the money was ultimately released, that he was told that the reason for the initial hold was because of president trump's desire to see other countries contribute more aid to ukraine. during that leadup time, sandy added that two career officials at the white house resigned surrounding, quote, their frustrations of the aid. >>> and a top state department official described a frantic b

mark sandy, quote, when i return from leave july 18th i was informed that the president's direction to hold military support funding for ukraine. who communicated that to you? mr. duffy. he also expressed a desire to create an apportionment that would implement the hold. you have to put it in writing, right? the president can't just hold the aid by dent of a formal order. he has to actually direct people to sign things and commit official acts to hold the aid. he does that through this guy mike duffy. the career folks tell mike duffy in response this could be illegal, this has to go through the lawyers. so what happens next? well, mike duffy takes over this job himself. so the career officials who are telling him this might be illegal won't be the ones being ordered to do it. question, did have you any conversations that the fact this money was being taken from you? answer, certainly with my staff. and what was their reaction? answer, they were surprised and they were concerned. in your career at omb or otherwise are you aware of any other political appointee giving given the responsibility to authorize apportionments as what happened here with mr. duffy? answ

mark sandy was issued a subpoena from the house intel committee this morning. that is noteworthy as well as who he works for. chad herbrun is outside the room where they're talking to mr. sandy right now. >> reporter: he's been going for about four hours. it's significant that they have him here. they've been trying to get other omb officials in the door to understand why the aid was held up and eventually released. they tried to get the acting director in. they tried to get the actual director, mick mulvaney in, he's the acting white house chief of staff. mark sandy is the first one who has come in to talk. we're told in the next half hour or so, he might depart. four hours so far, hearing from mark sandy. last they had another deposition, hearing from david holmes, a di pr blow matt who da diplomat who was at the u.s. embassy in ukraine. he indicated he overheard a telephone call between gordon sondland and president trump talking about, quote, investigations. that is key. they'll have gordon sondland in next week. i talked to debbie wasserman schultz last night. she was in the deposition. she wouldn't tell us what was said but it was, quote, disturbing and signific

mr. rudy giuliani on ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the united states. >> this evening the house intelligence committee released the closed door transcripts from two more impeachment witnesses, phillip reeker and mark sandy, an official at the white house office of management and budget who spoke to lawmakers on november 16. sandy told them two staffers left the omb after expressing frustration after the hold placed on aid to ukraine. meanwhile, the house judiciary committee will hold its first meetings on december 4. chairman adler wrote the president to ask trump if he or his counsel, quote, plan to attend the hearing or make a request to question the witness panel. nad ler added trump has until december 1 to notify the committee. tonight the president bill what was billed as a homecoming rally in sunrise, florida, given that he now claims florida as his permanent residence. spent a good part of his meeting airing his grievances. >> first it was the russia hoax, total hoax. it was a failed overthrow attempt, and the biggest fraud in the history of our country. and then you look, the mueller deal. do you remember that mess? they had nothing. two years. they spent $45 million, and the real cost is many t

mr. biden and burisma, and either specifically by name or reference. there is no dispute of that. >> take a look at the private deposition yesterday from mark sandy, and you were at, and he is the first omb official to testify, and this what congressman lee zelden said after. >> in order to put out a new shiny object with the moving goalpost, and the speaker started to use bribery, because extortion fizzled out, and quid pro quo fizzled out before that, and the answer today, and the answers given today as it relates to that only further drives a bigger hole into that argument. this is a great day for our country, and i mean, it is a bad day for democrats. >> i am going to guess that you disagree with that. and can you tell me the impact that sandy's testimony had on the democrat's arguments? >> well, we have been asked not to specifically cite exchanges and questions and answers in depositions until such time as the depositions are released. as evidenced by our behavior, the depositions are being produced and as timely a fashion as possibly, and made available to the public as was the case yesterday and that is the case with mr. sandy's deposition as

mr. giuliani was pushing. >> the president had no interest in the defense of the ukraine. he had one thing in mind. he wanted to shake down president zelensky. >> reporter: over the weekend, white house budget official mark sandymakers in private system that the president's decision to freeze aid to ukraine this summer was highly irregular and that he could never get an explanation for it. wisconsin republican ron johnson argued it would have been better if none of this had been exposed. >> funding would have been restored, and our relationship with ukraine would be better after than it is today. >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi said there's one witness who could clear things up. >> the president could speak before the committee or he could do it in writing. he has every opportunity to present his case. >> reporter: the intelligence committee also released a transcript of its interview over the weekend with jennifer williams, she's a state department employee who was detailed to vice president mike pence's office. she was on the president's july phone call with the president of ukraine, and she described mr. trump's push for an investigation into the bidens as, quote, unusual and inappropriate. tony? >>